Raising the Stakes

“Come on. I’ll take you to the nearest—”

“Why did you follow me?” The words spilled from her lips. She wanted to call them back, but it was too late.

“I didn’t.”

“Of course you did. Do you think I’m stupid?”

“I think,” he said gently, “you have a very active imagination.”

“How did you end up on this road, right behind my car? You followed me, and I want to know the reason.”

“How could I have followed you? You’re heading for Vegas. I was heading away from it.”

“Oh,” she said. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth in a gesture that was becoming increasingly familiar to him. “Oh…”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “Well, that’s okay. I get a lot of that.”

“A lot of what?” she said. A delicate furrow appeared between her eyebrows.

“Of women saying I followed them when the both of us know, with all due modesty, that it’s they who followed me.”

Dawn stood up straight. “I did not follow…” She saw him grin again. “You’re teasing me.”

“Uh-huh.”

She drew a deep breath, then let it out slowly between her slightly parted lips. A loose tendril of hair lifted on her forehead.

“I guess I owe you an apology.”

“You do, indeed.”

“I thought… I don’t know how to explain…”

“You don’t have to,” he said gruffly. “And, while we’re at it, I’m sorry I scared you.”

She nodded. The day was warm, but he saw a little shudder go through her and she crossed her arms and clasped her own shoulders.

“The breeze,” she said, by way of explanation.

“Sure.” He cleared his throat. “Well. Let’s go find us a gas station that’s open.”

He walked her to his car and opened the door. She hesitated before she got inside. I’m not the reincarnation of Count Dracula, he wanted to say—but he might as well have been. He was a liar and a cheat, and the need to come clean with her burned like a flame in his belly.

“Seat belt,” he said with a quick smile.

She put it on. He started the car, thought about the endless miles of nothing he’d passed and looked at her.

“What’s behind us?”

“Behind us?” she said stupidly.

“Yes. Back where you came from.”

“Another ten miles of dirt road, a little general store with a gas pump…and a sign that said Rocking Horse Ranch And Boarding School Five Miles Ahead…”

The lie came easily. “Not much. A couple of side roads that don’t lead anywhere.”

“Well, where were you coming from? A town?”